STEVENS, John, American engineer and inventor: b. New York, 1749; d. Hoboken, N. J., 6 March 1838. He was graduated in law in 1771. In 1787, having accidently seen the imperfect steamboat of John Fitch, he at once became interested in steam propulsion, and experimented constantly for the next 30 years on the subject. In 1789 he petitioned the legislature of New York for a grant of the ex clusive navigation of the waters of that State. The petition was accompanied with drafts of the plan of his steamboat, but the right was not granted because the boat did not meet the exactions made by Congress. The following year he again petitioned Congress, this time for laws to protect American inventors. Out of this petition and subsequent active interest in the matter on the part of Stevens have sprung the present Amertcanpatent system. In 1804 he constructed a propeller, a small open boat worked by steam, and his success was such that he built the Phenix which ran for six years on the Delaware river, a steamboat, which was completed but a very short time after Fulton had finished the Clermont. Fulton hav
ing obtained the exclusive right to the naviga tion of the Hudson, Mr. Stevens placed his boats on the Delaware and Connecticut. In 1812 he published a remarkable pamphlet urg ing the government to make experiments in railways traversed by steam carriages. The first steam ferry in the world was established by him in October 1811, connecting Hoboken with New York. His locomotive model (1826) was exhibited in operation and it has been claimed as the first locomotive run on a track in this country. His other inventions and im provements were many and various.